And I had always hoped that the English weren't quite as stupid as Americans, especially American suburbanites....
Americans are always "shocked!" when some father who lives at the end of a cul-de-sac murders his family in cold blood. He was so "loving"! Such a "good guy"! And how do they know this? Because they guy who mowed down three people once waved to them while mowing the lawn. In fact, most people outside a traditional village or settled urban neighborhood really DON'T know their neighbors. They have NO IDEA how Daddy threatens or treats his family behind closed doors.
In the same way, people are just SHOCKED that "doting" dad JOHN MILLER slaughtered his 8-year-old daughter and her mother, and abandoned a terrified and shell-shocked 4-year-old daughter at the murder scene. Sorry, folks. "Doting" dads don't do that by definition. And I don't give a crap how "stressed" they are. Sorry he managed to pull the wool over your eyes. But you were snookered.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086836/Leeds-double-murder-Man-arrested-mother-daughter-8-dead-house.html
Girl, 4, found hiding next to murdered mother and sister: Father held after teacher and eight-year-old killed in family home
Friends said the couple had had relationship problems and may have been struggling financially
By Paul Sims
Last updated at 12:22 AM on 16th January 2012
A terrified girl of four was found hiding just a few feet away from the bodies of her murdered mother and eight-year-old sister.
Omelia Miller was discovered cowering by police officers inside the family’s semi-detached property on Saturday after her father was arrested at a nearby nature reserve.
He was being held last night on suspicion of murdering his partner, Sarah Laycock, a 31-year-old primary school teacher, and eight-year-old daughter Abigail.
Friends said the couple had experienced relationship problems in the past and may have been struggling financially.
It is understood work had dried up for John Miller, a 36-year-old plasterer, and that he had been spending increasing amounts of time weightlifting in a gym.
He is expected to have a psychiatric assessment in the coming hours before he is formally questioned by detectives.
His daughter Omelia was taken to hospital as a precaution and treated for ‘minor injuries’ before being discharged.
'She is now being cared for by her maternal grandmother and is expected to be interviewed by specialist officers in the next couple of days as a potential witness.
It is not yet known if she saw her mother and sister being murdered at the family home or was hiding moments before the killings took place.
A friend said she had been left ‘shaken’ by her ordeal and suggested that officers would wait until they had quizzed her father before speaking to her.
Miller was arrested by officers at 4pm on Saturday at the Fairburn Ings nature reserve, five miles from his home in Garforth, West Yorkshire.
He was initially seen by walkers struggling with a leg injury. They approached him and asked if he needed any help before calling for an ambulance.
Paramedics arrived at the scene and began treating Miller, but as they tried to close the ambulance doors he became violent and they called the police.
He is then said to have stripped off in an attempt to break free. Six officers soon arrived and restrained him before eventually taking him to Pinderfields Hospital.
While being treated there, Miller is understood to have made ‘one or two disclosures’ to police which led them to the bodies of his partner and daughter.
Officers found Omelia with minor injuries at the house and she has now been discharged from hospital
Police arrested Miller at 4pm on Saturday five miles from his home at the Fairburnings Nature Reserve near Castleford, pictured
The street was immediately cordoned off and forensic officers entered the £150,000 property.
The bodies were last night removed from the property in a private ambulance ahead of a post-mortem examination to determine exactly how they died. Miss Laycock, whose brother is believed to be a serving police officer, went to the same school as Miller. They moved into their current home five years ago.
Last night, friends and neighbours described Miller as ‘a doting father’ who would have done anything for his two children.
He was out with them in the street on Christmas Day as they had a first ride on their new bicycles.
Suzie Parker, 35, who works in a nearby newsagent, said: ‘The two girls were in here on Friday after school with their dad buying sweets. He was a doting father. You could just tell. I’m a parent too and you could tell that he adored them. Whatever they wanted they got.
‘The youngest would take her time choosing the sweets whilst the eldest would hurry her along.
‘They were in here most days. I keep seeing that four-year-old’s face in my head. I just can’t believe what has happened.
‘They appeared to be such a close family. There was no hint of a problem. He was just a typical soft-touch father, as far as I was concerned.
‘He absolutely adored them. There was nothing to suggest that this might happen.’
Neighbour Audrey Bottomley said: ‘He loved the children. I can’t understand it. I was quite shocked when I heard.’
Another neighbour, Janet Hutchinson, said: ‘I last saw the girls riding their bikes on Christmas Day. They just seemed a normal family.
‘We are all shocked. You just don’t know what is going on in other houses, do you?’
A regular at the local Garforth Working Men’s Club said work had dried up for Miller and that he had been spending more and more time in the gym.
The local man in his 50s, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘John had been getting less work so he’d been spending a lot of time at the gym bulking up.’